Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Tandy still in mix for Olympic spot

Megan Tandy's hopes of starting the season on the World Cup biathlon team were dashed two weeks ago at the senior team trials in Canmore.
tandy

Megan Tandy's hopes of starting the season on the World Cup biathlon team were dashed two weeks ago at the senior team trials in Canmore.

Her fourth-place results were the two best finishes in the trials for the 29-year-old Caledonia Nordic Ski Club member from Prince George. With just two World Cup spots open on Canada's four-woman senior team, that wasn't enough to cut it for Tandy.

Her disappointing results interrupted a six-year run of starting her season racing with the best in the world on the World Cup tour. Instead, Tandy will join Sarah Beaudry, a Prince George born-and-bred biathlete, on Canada's four-female B-team to race the IBU Cup circuit.

"I had a decent training year and left Germany (where she lives) heading for trials feeling confident and thinking I was in the best shape of my life," said Tandy. "But I caught a cold that came with a persistent cough and I arrived and felt crappy from the get-go. It wasn't quite game over but it was pretty close. I felt (considering how her illness impacted her ski times) it was relatively unrealistic. I didn't shoot amazingly and even if I had shot 100 per cent every race it would have been really difficult with just two spots open."

Although her World Cup string has been snapped, that does not mean Tandy won't get to compete in her third-straight Olympics. She is still ranked third in Canada based on her World Cup results from the second half of last season and assuming the current World Cup team members racing from now until the end of January don't bump her out of a position by posting better results she will have an Olympic team spot in the Games in February in PyeongChang, South Korea.

Tandy, who competed in the two most recent Olympics in Sochi and Vancouver-Whistler, spent nearly two weeks in Canmore preparing for trials. She's now back home in Germany awaiting her first IBU Cup start.

"All I can do now is relax, get healthy, do good training and post results that prove I should be swapped out and earn the opportunity to be moved up," Tandy said. "There's no hard number, it's a case of coaches' discretion and they will try to make realistic judgments based on shooting speed, shooting percentage, and ski speed. Their intention right up until the Olympics, regardless of who is qualified, is to have the best four women at any moment racing World Cups. They are open-minded to swapping athletes.

"I'm assuming top-10 results on IBU Cup would put me in position to start that discussion," she said.

Canada will send 10 biathletes to the Olympics (five women and five men). One of each gender will serve as an alternate and won't race the individual events but could be used in the relays.

Beaudry and Emma Lunder of Vernon, as well as Carsen Campbell of Bedeque, P.E.I., are at this week's IBU Cup season-opening races in Sjusjoen, Norway. The full Canadian IBU Cup team will gather in Lenzerheide, Switzerland for the second IBU Cup stop, Dec. 8-10.

The first World Cup race is Nov. 26 in Oestersund, Sweden. Lunder made the World Cup team along with Julia Ransom (Kelowna), Rosanna Crawford (Canmore) and Megan Bankes (Calgary). The men's A-team includes Nathan Smith (Calgary), Brendan Green (Hay River, N.W.T.) and the Gow brothers of Canmore, Christian and Scott.

Joining Tandy, Beaudry and Campbell on the IBU Cup team are Matthew Hudec ((North Battleford, Sask.), Jules Burnotte (Sherbrooke, Que.), Macx Davies (Canmore), Leilani Tam von Burg (Ottawa) and Nadia Moser (Whitehorse, Yukon).

Matt Neumann of Prince George, 28, finished agonizingly close to making the IBU Cup team. He was ninth among the men in the national trials, just .01 per cent behind Davies for the final spot.

Tandy is looking forward to racing with Beaudry in what she says will likely be the last year of her biathlon career. They have crossed paths a few times in the World Cups and at the 2016 world championships but this will be their first time racing together for a full season trimester.

"We're going to have fun on the IBU Cup, you've got to stay positive," Tandy said. "Sarah won that first trials race and she was definitely vying for a World Cup spot as well. Last year was a tough season for her for a lot of reasons and it's cool to see her making a comeback.

"It will be fun to have two Caledonia Nordic girls together and we'll definitely make a good fight of it."

Beaudry and Lunder are entered in today's 7.5-kilometre women's sprint in Norway. Campbell finished 35th among 116 in the men's 10 km sprint Thursday.